


Solid Ground

by ilovethisship



Series: Tumblr Prompts - Bellarke [2]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Raven shows up too, but background because you only see the beginning and the end of the fake lol, mentions of past becho but no details
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 03:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15501411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilovethisship/pseuds/ilovethisship
Summary: For my dear prompt anon onTumblr: AU Bellarke: a fake dating fic maybe set in a cabin where they go with there friends but Bellamys ex shows up and she sucks and clarkes first reaction was to pretend Bellamy moved on to help him out. I think this may be a little different than you intended, but it’s where they took me.Only minor edits were made, so let me know if you catch anything that sounds super weird!





	Solid Ground

**Author's Note:**

> For my dear prompt anon on [Tumblr](http://thegriffin-blakefamily.tumblr.com/): AU Bellarke: a fake dating fic maybe set in a cabin where they go with there friends but Bellamys ex shows up and she sucks and clarkes first reaction was to pretend Bellamy moved on to help him out. I think this may be a little different than you intended, but it’s where they took me.
> 
> Only minor edits were made, so let me know if you catch anything that sounds super weird!

"So, my weekend started in the _weirdest_ possible way."

Clarke tries to smile at Bellamy from her seat on the edge of the bed and shrugs. "You didn't hear her in the car. I panicked."

"This is you panicking?"

"You weren't there. I was annoyed and it was the first thing I could think of."

Bellamy sighs and pulls out his phone, making a show of scrolling to the top of their text chain. "You know, I was sitting here, minding my own business, talking to Miller and Zeke, when _this_ pops up on my phone: 'Would it really be so unbelievable if you and I started dating?'"

Clarke crosses her arms. "You never answered the question, by the way."

"And then," he says, ignoring her prodding, because he's not prepared to address that, " _then_ you said: 'Please back me up. If anyone asks, we've been secretly dating for the past two months.'"

"You didn't have to kiss me as soon as I walked into the living room." She leans back, a flush on her cheeks, but still smiling. "They definitely believed me after that."

Bellamy pockets his phone again and sets his hands on his hips. It's hard to try to look angry when... well, when he's not. He _has_ wanted to kiss her for a very long time. This just isn't the way he wanted to go about it. Even though he's not actually mad, he stares down at her long enough that she starts to pick at her cuticles and avoids his gaze.

"How did you expect this to go, Clarke?"

"I don't know. I guess I assumed Echo would ask you about it in private and you would confirm it and ask her to respect that we're still figuring things out."

"Contrary to popular belief, I can't actually read your mind."

Clarke winces. Bellamy suddenly feels that frustrating, inexplicable pull toward her. It's unfair. Every time she looks sad, all he wants to do is hold her or make her laugh or anything to improve her mood, really. It's an instinct he's tried to tamp down over and over, because being in love with your best friend is incredibly inconvenient.

"We can go out there right now and admit everything," she offers. "Or if you're willing to go along with it for a while, I can sleep on the floor. Raven assumed I wouldn't want to share a room with her anymore and Echo got excited about having her own bed."

Bellamy sighs again, but he takes a seat next to her. She looks back over at him, chewing on her lip, and this entire thing is unfair for a multitude of reasons, but currently, it's because she doesn't know what that does to him.

"Bellamy, you've been avoiding her for months and you should have heard the way she was talking about how you haven't moved on. I just.... I wanted to help."

"It's fine, Clarke. I know what you were trying to do." He throws his arm around her shoulders and pulls her closer. "And I'm not making you sleep on the floor."

"You're not mad at me, are you?"

"I think you're a little crazy. But no. I'm not mad."

All the tension leaves her body and she folds herself into his side. Without thinking, he sets his chin on top of her head. She's the best friend he's ever had. He knows she's trying to protect him, because she doesn't want Echo to think she's right. He can't tell her that Echo's half-right, because that's one step away from telling her the problem with dating is that he doesn't want to date someone that's not Clarke.

Going along with this might be stupid, but he’s also reluctantly encouraged that Clarke’s first instinct was to pretend they’ve been dating for months. It means that she’s thought about it at some point. That alone is as terrifying as it is reassuring. He doesn’t need to make it through this thing with renewed hope; he needs to make it through with his heart intact. And the feeling of her fingers on his skin while she toys with the hem of his shirt isn’t helping.

“If we’re going to do this,” he whispers into her hair, “we need to set some ground rules.”

“That’s fair.” Clarke’s fingers stop. “I guess it depends on how far we’re willing to go to sell this. Obviously, we have to kiss, but….”

Bellamy’s stomach does a somersault and he has to clear his throat. “Uh, yeah. Unless they have the place bugged, we should be able to stay PG.”

Clarke laughs and pokes him in the side. “Nothing past making out.”

“Nothing past making out.” Bellamy stands up to prevent her from hearing the way his heart is starting to pound in his chest. “Hands above the belt?”

She nods, standing, and steps closer to him. “And we don’t let this fuck up our friendship.”

Bellamy swallows hard. “Never.”

“Promise?” She holds out her pinky.

He hooks his pinky through hers and smiles. “Promise.”

* * *

It’s not like Bellamy has any experience with torture, but as easy as it is to pretend that they’re dating, it’s also horrible.

After they agree on a set of ground rules, they watch a movie with their friends. He gets to hold her hand. He gets to kiss her whenever she says something cute. When she falls asleep on his shoulder, he gets to carry her to bed and climb in next to her, but he wakes up in the morning and her forehead is pressed between his shoulder blades. It’s the single most terrifying moment of his life.

Even though he’s scared, while it feels cruel to be able to kiss Clarke Griffin whenever he wants, when his heart is going to beat its way out of his chest if she runs her fingers down his arm one more time, falling into these habits is _easy_. He’s weak. This is something he’s wanted for years and he finally has it. As much as he tries to remind himself that it’s temporary, it’s such a seamless transition. It feels too normal.

There’s nowhere to hide. Even when she’s getting ready for bed the next night, he can’t get a break, because she’s going to get into bed next to him any minute. He pulls the other pillow over his face and sighs, annoyed, because it still smells like her shampoo from the night before. Everything he does, he’s drowning in her and it kind of sucks.

The door opens and closes, but he leaves the pillow over his face, because if he has to see how short her sleep shorts are again, he’s going to combust.

“You didn’t have to leave the light on for me.” The blankets shuffle next to him and he hears a click. With the safety of the dark, he hands her the pillow. “I almost thought you were already asleep.”

“No. Just thinking.”

She settles into the mattress, shoulder barely brushing his under the covers. “About anything in particular?”

Bellamy stares up at the ceiling, ignoring the weight of her presence. “Echo apologized to me tonight. She says she hopes she didn’t out our relationship before we were ready.”

“Huh. That’s actually really nice of her.”

Bellamy lets his head drop to the side so he can finally meet her eyes, but he can’t quite see her in the dark. “Yeah. She also said that I’m not doing her any favors by holding back around you.”

Clarke laughs quietly. “Wow. You’ve been holding back, huh?”

If there was ever an appropriate time to confess his feelings, this would probably be it. They bubble up underneath his skin, fighting to get out, and he almost says something. Anything would do. Hell, all he has to do is lean forward a few inches and he could kiss her for real. No audience. It could actually _mean_ something.

“You know, we haven’t talked about our exit strategy,” he says instead.

“What?”

Bellamy ignores the crushing pain in his chest. “Our breakup. How long are we doing this?”

“Oh.” Clarke turns her head toward the ceiling. “I guess I didn’t really think that far ahead.”

“We can probably wait a couple weeks and then tell everyone that we think we’re better off as friends.”

She takes a deep breath and sits up. “Yeah. Sure. If that’s what you want.”

Bellamy can’t move. Of course that isn’t what he wants, but how is he supposed to tell her that?

“I need some water.”

Clarke is up and out of the room before he can fully register the break in her voice. He sits up, confused. Were they supposed to pretend to be in a relationship indefinitely? Why would it make her so upset to plan out their breakup? It makes about as much sense as the uncomfortable mixture of hope and guilt building up inside of his stomach, because there’s no reason for her to be upset.

He’s not sure how long it’s been since she left, but it feels too long, so he slides out of bed and pulls on his sweatpants. The hallway is still dark. He tries the kitchen first, because she said she wanted water, and he’s not sure where else to look. He almost doesn’t see her leaning over the counter by the sink, but a sniffle gives her away.

“Clarke?” She freezes at the sound of his voice. “Are you okay?”

“I said I don’t want to talk about this, Bellamy.” She opens the cupboard and grabs a glass, clearing her throat. “Can we just figure this out later?”

“No.”

She sets the glass down and spins around. “Well, I don’t think we should talk about this here.”

Everything he’s ever thought about telling her swims in his head as he crosses the room. There’s the list of things he loves about her, the exact hour and minute he realized he was in love with her, how he’s grateful for every day he gets to have her in his life and how losing her is his worst nightmare. But none of it feels like enough when she blinks up at him and takes a shaky breath.

Bellamy sets his hand over hers on the counter and links their fingers together as best he can. “I don’t think we should talk about it at all, actually.”

“Oh, thank god.”

Clarke grabs the back of his neck and pulls him down into a kiss. Where everything else has been for show, sweet and polite, this one is rough and desperate. His hands immediately go to the small of her back and her fingers dig into his shoulders, both trying to pull the other as close as physically possible. It’s not enough. It’s not close enough.

They’re truly in sync for the first time this weekend as he brings his hands around to her waist and lifts her onto the counter. He pulls her closer by the back of the knees. One of her hands tangles in his hair as he kisses along her cheekbone to her ear and when she sighs, it’s the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” he whispers against her neck.

“I was scared.” She pulls his earlobe between her teeth and his knees buckle. “Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t think….” He trails off, lost in the way her fingers feel against his back. “I didn’t think you liked me.”

She leans back and grabs his face between her hands, settling her forehead against his. “Can we just agree that we’re both monumentally stupid?”

Bellamy nods. “We’re both monumentally stupid.”

The only thing holding him down on this planet right now is Clarke. He’s certain that if she stops touching him, he’ll float away, but that would probably be okay, because at least he knows that she feels the same. There will be time for confessions later. It’s too early to say anything more, so he settles for kissing her again, running his hand from her hip to her shoulder until her can thread his fingers through her hair.

“God, can you two get a fucking room?”

Blinding light fills the room and they both freeze at the sound of Raven’s voice. Bellamy turns his head enough to see her standing with her hands on her hips. Clarke buries her face in Bellamy’s chest, trying to hide her laughter.

“I’m really happy for you guys, but this?” She waves a hand in their direction. “This is excessive.”

Bellamy starts to take a step back, but Clarke hooks her heels behind his thighs again and pulls him back with a grin. “It’s my mom’s cabin, Raven.”

“And we have to make breakfast on that counter tomorrow.”

“We always end up making breakfast anyway,” Bellamy says, tucking a piece of hair behind Clarke’s ear. “And this counter is typically reserved for dirty dishes.”

Raven pretends to gag and Clarke collapses onto Bellamy’s shoulder again.

“What do you want, Raven?”

“All I wanted was a glass of water.”

Bellamy kisses the top of Clarke’s head and grabs the glass she set down earlier. He leans over toward the sink to fill it up and then holds it out to his side.

“I’m not coming near you guys mid-whatever you are.”

“Unless you want to learn a lot more about Bellamy, he should probably stay right here,” Clarke yells before dissolving into laughter again.

Bellamy turns his head and shrugs. Raven rolls her eyes, but stalks over to grab the glass before promptly turning around.

“You guys are disgusting.” She shuts the light off on her way out. “I love you both!”

Bellamy shakes his head and cups Clarke’s face with his hands, running his thumbs along her cheekbone. “I have one more question before we pick up where we left off.”

“Shoot,” she says, kissing his chin.

“When’s our anniversary? Because I feel like I’ve been out of the loop for the first couple months of this thing.”

Clarke rolls her eyes and shuts him up with a kiss.            


End file.
